We paid off $44,000 by following Dave Ramsey's financial plan. Follow along as we finish the rest of the steps to financial peace . . .

Friday, October 10, 2008

Bare Necessity Expenses

I decided that I should figure out what our actual "bare necessity expenses" are for one month. These are the expenses we couldn't get rid of, even with a job loss, or something like that.

The total of our necessary monthly expenses comes to $3,965.

It is somewhat interesting to me because my husband's salary (without commission) is $4,400. I actually had thought that his base salary would NOT cover our basic expenses, but I guess it does. Well, pretty close anyway. In this list I have lowered our auto gas figure considerably if my husband wasn't commuting to work.

So, if my husband lost his job, we would have to earn a minimum of $4,000 a month

Expenses

AUTO-Excise Tax

AUTO GAS - BR

150

AUTO-Insurance

120

AUTO-Maintenance

CASH-Auto Gas JR

CASH-Clothing

CASH-Dining Out

CASH-Gifts

CASH-Grocery

200

CASH-Kids Allowance

CASH-Parties

CASH-School Lunch

CASH-Spending

DEBT-Equity Loan

103

DEBT-Visa

HOME-Cable/Phone

181

HOME-Electric

190

HOME-Furnace

0

HOME-Mortgage

2328

HOME-Oil

550

HOME-Trash

20

KIDS-Bball

KIDS-Misc.

KIDS-Piano

KIDS-Preschool

MISC.

MISC.

PERSONAL-Cell Phone

PERSONAL-Contacts

PERSONAL-Life Ins.

23

PERSONAL-Newspap

PERSONAL-Rx

PERSONAL-Braces

100

PERSONAL-BR Sports

PERSONAL-Vacation

TRANSFER-To Sav 2

TOTAL

3965

So, if my husband lost his job, we would need to come up with $4,000 a month to survive (at least in our current house). For one person working 40 hours a week, that would mean an hourly wage better than $25 an hour. That might be hard to come by in a bad economy.

Right now we have $8,000 in our savings account. That would get us through 2 months. By the end of the year we will have $20,000 in our account. That would get us through 5 months.

I'm not sure if I feel better or worse, but I think it is good information to know.